the tall blond guy goes to japan

Bunk Parking

The Grand Central Hotel

The bathtub is really deep. Small children could learn how to swim in this thing. Again, I'm not making that up (I think every entry I write will have at least one of those phrases in it). So I had a really hot bath last night and slept like the dead. Appropriately enough, this morning, I awoke with a shower that could wake the dead. I must have set the showerhead to "masochist" without knowing it, because I'm sure I could feel some of that water going right through me.

So, breakfast. I wish I had taken my camera to the restaurant and got some pictures of the decor. Maybe I will tomorrow. Suffice it to say, it was odd in that funny Japanese kind of way- I'll elaborate in another entry, when I can provide some pictures.

Thanks to the free breakfast coupon, I got into my first Japanese cultural quandry. I entered the restaurant, and the dapper little man bowed at me. I bowed back and quickly handed him my breakfast coupon. He took it and bowed. I bowed back. He gestured to enter the dining area and bowed. I bowed back and started moving in the direction of the dining room. He bowed again for no apparent reason. I bowed back. He bowed again, apparently because I had just bowed. I bowed back. He bowed back. "This is getting silly," I thought, "and I'm getting hungry." I decided not to bow back, and just walked in to get my food. Whew! I'll have to come up with a better strategy before seeing him again tomorrow.

Last night, while I was staggering to my office, I must have missed seeing these: bunk parking. When happens when the upper car wants to come down? The bottom car gets squashed, I guess. Maybe I'll ask someone how these work...

Bunk Parking

I won't bore you all with details of my job. All that needs to be said is that I sat in front of QuarkXPress all day, moved stories around, and listened to my boss compain about the "assholes at Associated Press". My day job here is at the Daily Yomiuri, the english edition of a big Japanese newspaper.

One thing I noticed while walking at lunch are the little things that Tokyo people do to make their city pretty. Look at these spinny wind-chime things- they lined one small side street, for no particular reason. I love things like that!

Pretty Lampposts